I am in the process of restoring a 1973 ford f100. i have bought a new fender for it, and i'm having one heck of a time gettin' it off (it might be just me..). My uncle was telling me about how you could take the whole front body parts off...hood, grill....every thing came off except for the bumper. Has anybody heard of this before??? This is my first truck and i love it, but it needs some work, so i was thinking if this could be done it would be the easiest way to go. If this can be done, help me out and tell me how. Any advice will be appreciated.

Matt

 

Yes you can remove the front clip as one.. I took my hood and bumper off but the rest comes off together..

 

I put a 460 and c6 in my 73 F100 last year. I pulled my front clip off to put it in.
Leave the hood on, it will support everything else.
Remove the front bumper.
Remove 3 bolts on each side that hold the inner fender bracket to the cab.
remove one bolt that goes through the cab on each side and in to the fender. These bolts are accessed by opening your doors. Look about 1/4 th of the way from the bottom and reach between the cab and the door from the inside and take them out with a wrench.
Then remove 1 bolt at the very bottom of the fender that goes straight up through the fender and in to the cab.
Look down on each side of your radiator. There will be 1 bolt on each side that goes through the radiator support, and in to the frame rail.
Disconnect all electrical, and water lines that attach the front clip to the cab.
Make sure to take the transmision cooling lines loose from the radiator.
Close the hood.
Get a person on each side. Put one hand in the center of the wheel well. Put the other hand in the very top corner of the grill to the out side top above the headlight. Be very careful with this hand so that you don't bust the grill insert. It may be a good idea to remove the grill inserts. I remove mine, a friend of mine does not. Neither of us have busted one yet.
Lift the front clip up at an angle with the front going up hill, and walk straight to the front of the truck.
Make sure to mark where every thing was. Also, draw a line around the inner fender support to cab bracket. It will make everything a lot easier and faster to re assemble.
If you don't have A/C, the front clip can be removed from the truck in 30 minutes to an hour. I don't know about with A/C as I have never done it.
One friend of mine pulled his clip off like this one time. He detailed his engine. Then he completely disassembeled the front clip. He cleaned and painted every thing then reassembeled it on the truck one piece at a time. It turned out realy nice. It looked like a brand new truck under the hood when he was done.
Doc

 

thanks alot for the help, i really appreciate it...i have one question though...what water hoses are you talking about? do you mean pull all of the hoses off the radiator? Does the radiator support come off with this? again i appreciate the help and i will probably be having many more questions before im done with it.

Matt

 

Matt,
Yes the radiator hoses. You only have to take one end off. You can leave them on the front clip, or you can leave them on the engine. I normaly leave mine on the engine. This way, i can put one hose end inside the other, and not have anti freeze dripping half of the day.
The radiator support, inner fenders, outer fenders, grill, lights, hood, everything will come off in one piece.
I forgot to mention earlier, but I also usualy reamove my battery before removing the front clip. Makes it a little lighter, and is an added safety precaution.
Feel free to ask any questions that you want. That's why we're here.
Doc

 

I have another question...the bed on this truck isn't in too good of shape. Am i able to put a newer model of bed on this truck, like one off of a 95 f150? My dad owns one this year and they look almost exactly the same. What kind of modifications would i have to do if this is possible?
matt

 

Is your 73 a short wheel base?

 

nah...nevermind, that wouldn't look too good

 

it's a long wheel base

 

If you have a short wheel base, you can get by with a newer model step side bed, and it doesn't look to bad. I actualy just bought an 83 model step sidebed for my 73. If you have a long wheel base, your pretty much stuck with a 73 to a 79 bed.
Doc

 

What motor and transmision do you have?

 

yeah...i was just looking on a forum with a truck that had an 83 bed on it...i messes up all of the lines on the truck. do you have the bed on the truck yet? i'd like to see that

 

it's a 302 with a c4 tranny. I have a buddy that has a 71 ford f100 with a 390 and a c6 he is wanting $200 for, i might later on put that in it. It definately needs a rebuild though...it has 290,000 mile on it

 

DOC, what wheelbase does your truck have.

 

it's a long wheel base, both are. the problem with the 71 model is that the cab mounts are broke on it and it busted a hole in the gas tank, so they have it parked because of all the problems that happened after that. it had a column shifter on it and it was hard for it to go in gear.